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Bleak future for psychics phone scam

Richard Oakley

May 16 2004, 1:00am, The Sunday Times

Realm Communications, whose premium-line services also include Weathercall, has been told by the telecoms regulator to stop leaving missed calls on people’s mobile phones. When people called back, they were told they had been awarded €50 to play an instant cash game and given a premium-rate number to call. The game, 4’s a Fortune, cost at least €1.90 a minute to play.

Realm, run by Tom Higgins from Co Wicklow, has been told by Regtel, Ireland’s premium-line regulator, that it can no longer practise “missed-call marketing” and must stop promoting 4’s a Fortune. The game was still operating yesterday.

The company employed teams of callers to ring mobile phones and then hang up before they answered. The call would be logged as missed and appear…